Austin Gerald Talbot (1905-1985), Archibald Maxwell Talbot (1907–1972), Roy Almer Denmond Talbot (1915–2009), Hastings Ross Fanshaw Talbot (1918-2000), and Bryan Kingston Talbot (1920-1979) were the sons of Osmond Charles Fanshaw Talbot and Mamie Susan Kennedy Augusta Lambert, who had married in 1904, with an extended family centred in Tucker's Town (the only part of the Main Island that lies within St. George's Parish) and eastern Hamilton Parish, between Bailey's Bay and Paynter's Vale. Talbots had lived in this area since at least the 18th Century, and the brothers were related by descent to many other families of this area, including the Seon and Outerbridge families. They had five other siblings. Their mother's sister, Ainslie Letitia Dansmore Lambert, married Charles Adolphus Mansfield Manders in 1895, and gave birth to William Cromwell Manders in 1906.
Oliver Constantine Lambert and Osmond Charles Fanshaw Talbot
Most of the signatories of 23 July 1920, petition by residents of Tucker's Town against the planned land acquisitions and redevelopment called for in the "Bermuda Development Company Act (No. 2), 1920" were related to the Talbot Brothers, including their maternal grandfather, Oliver Constantine Lambert (born in Southampton Parish, the son of Samuel Deers Lambert and Ann Newbold), parents Osmond Charles Fanshaw Talbot and Ainslie Letitia Dansmore Manders, maternal uncles Stewart Hastings Lambert and Oliver Ceylon Lambert,[2] maternal aunts Essie Celina Gertrude Lambert, Ann Mahew Constantine Simmons, and Ada Permelia Arlene Simmons, and other relatives Eliza Harriet Talbot (Smith), Rose Ann Smith, Dina Smith (the sister of their maternal grandmother, Rose Ann Lambert, born Rose Ann Smith), and five other Smiths, to whom they were related through both the Lambert (via their maternal grandmother) and Talbot families. Other signatories were Minnie Andrew Palmer, Henry Nelms, Clarkson Frederick Burgess, Henry Thomas Harvey, Oscar Anderson, and Lancelot Laud Havard, the Rector of Hamilton and Smith's Glebe.[3] The petition was unsuccessful and Tucker's Town was compulsorily purchased with Dina Smith the last resident to leave when she was forcibly removed from her property in 1923.[4] Many of their relatives were participants in the civil suit of the descendants of Josiah Smith (the maternal grandfather of Mamie Susan Kennedy Augusta Lambert and Ainslie Letitia Dansmore Lambert) against the Bermuda Development Company in the Supreme Court in 1924 that resulted in compensation paid to the descendants for the land known as the Josiah Smith Estate at Tucker's Town.[5][6][7]
Career
The original members of the Talbot Brothers circa 1936: Ernest Stovell, Roy, Archie and Austin Talbot
The Talbots were the first of Bermuda's many notable singing groups to gain international acclaim.[8] With a population of fewer than 20,000 scattered over numerous islands totalling 21 square miles, Bermuda had no professional musicians or theatres until the advent of tourism during the latter 19th Century. The tourism industry was pioneered by wealthy visitors from North America, such as Samuel Clemens and Princess Louise, who would winter in Bermuda. New large hotels were built to cater to them, notably the Hamilton Hotel (completed in 1863), the Princess Hotel (completed in 1885), and the Hotel St. George (completed in 1906),[9] and these created employment opportunities for professional musicians. Beyond the hotels, public entertainment relied primarily upon amateur theatrics and music hall-type performances, notably by soldiers assigned to the Bermuda Garrison.[10]
After the First World War, Bermuda's tourism industry went through considerable change as Prohibition led to a flood of affluent middle class visitors seeking sun and alcohol, and Bermuda became a summer rather than a winter destination. The large urban hotels were replaced by resorts sandwiched between private beaches and golf courses, such as the Castle Harbour Hotel, built near Paynter's Vale in the 1920s, and the Elbow Beach Hotel (which had been completed before the war, in 1913). The construction of the Castle Harbour Hotel (completed in 1931) and the related Mid-Ocean Club had resulted in the forced relocation of the inhabitants of Tucker's Town, with their homes replaced by golf links. The families that had lived there, including the Talbots, were mostly resettled in Smith's Parish (a parish also known as Harris' Bay, from the coastal area at the southern end of its western boundary with Devonshire Parish,[11] today identified as Devonshire Bay and Sue Wood Bay) near Devil's Hole and John Smith's Bay, where Talbot Lane is found today. Bermuda's new visitors demanded entertainments that the genteel community was ill-equipped to provide, including a new type of music. Musical tastes in Bermuda were little different from North America and Britain. West Indian musicians were consequently brought in by the hotels,[12] and local musicians quickly adopted the Calypso they brought with them. The entertainments provided for tourists through the hotels remained separate and quite different, however, from the entertainments that catered to Bermudians, which still relied largely upon amateurs performing in church halls and similar venues.[13]
One such entertainment was the 25 May 1934, Southern United States-influenced concert at the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows Hall in Somerset Village (at the West End of Bermuda) given by the Ladies' Aid Society of the Marsden Methodist Church of Smith's Parish (to where the church had been re-located in 1923 from Tucker's Town),[14][15] an account of which was published in the Bermuda Recorder on 2 June 1934.[16] The performers evidently included the earliest members of the Talbot Brothers (with Roy and Bryan Talbot named, as were their parents, their sister Merle Genevieve Carmen Talbot, and Roy Talbot's mother-in-law Mrs. Bertha Aduza Smith):
The Ladies Aid Society of the Marsden Methodist Church of Harris Bay gave an old fashioned concert at G. U. O. of O.F. Hall Somerset on Friday evening 25th May. They were assisted by the Barber Shop Four, who are well known at the East End, having performed at the Castle Harbour Hotel and other places. Every available seat was occupied long before the time of opening the programme. The sceneries were exceptionally good, and had a touch of the old fashioned plantation days; the parts were very humorous and a few were encored. The programme was as follows:- Opening Chorus, "My Old Kentucky Home;" Parade. "Get you Ready, there's a meeting here to-night"; Solo, "Susan Jane;" Solo, "Dreaming of Home", Mrs Bertha Smith; Solo, "The Curse of an aching heart", Mrs Pearl Lamb; Solo, "What'll I do", Mr Roy Talbot; Duet, "Fifty years ago", Mrs Nancy Wilson and Mr O. Talbot; Solo, "Uncle Ned", Mr Byron Talbot; Sketch, The Barber Shop Four; Scene and Chorus "Carry me back to Old Virginia" Sketch and Chorus, "Carve the Possum"; Solo, "The Leading Lady", Mrs O. Talbot; Recitation, "People will Talk", Mrs Clara Talbot; Solo, "After you're gone", Miss M. Talbot; Solo, Mr Alfred Darrel; Sketch "A rumpus on Ginger Bread Hill" Quartette, The Barber Shop Four; Duet, "Sailor Boy", Mrs. Parker and Mrs. N. Wilson; Closing Chorus.
The Bermuda Recorder had previously printed an advertisement on 25 November 1933, reading "An up-to-date Service of Song will take place at Morris Hall, North Shore on Sunday, November 26th at 8.45 p.m. Mr Elton Bean (lyric baritone) and Talbot's Quartettee Party, etc. will participate. Admission 1/- Edith Hayward, promoter", and another advertisement on the 2 December 1933, reading "A CONCERT will be given in the Talbot School Room, Harris Bay, By the HARRISII GLEE CLUB, Assisted by friends on Friday, Dec. 8th, 1933 at 8.30 p.m. All the latest Songs, rendered by such talent as The Barber Shop Four and various performers of Tid Bits. Admission 1/- and 1/6. Proceeds in aid of the Marsden Sunday School, Harris Bay".
Before achieving a degree of fame with their best-known line-up, the Talbot Brothers had originally been composed in the 1930s of Austin Gerald Talbot, Archibald Maxwell Talbot, Roy Almer Denmond Talbot, and their cousin Ernest Stovell.[17] As the Talbot Brothers, of Tucker's Town, quartet, accompanied by banjo, they won third prize at an amateur concert at the exclusive Coral Island Club in Flatts Village, in Hamilton Parish, on 1 March 1936.[18][19]
The Second World War (1939-1945) would strangle Bermuda's tourism industry. Many hotels were adapted for use as barracks or for recreation by members of the Allied armed forces. The Castle Harbour Hotel was taken over by the United States Army for use by the personnel constructing Kindley Field. As an important Imperial fortress, vital to Allied victory in the Battle of the Atlantic, most of Bermuda's military-aged men not employed in trades vital to the war effort, or otherwise ineligible to serve, volunteered (or were conscripted) to serve in the British Army, the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, the Royal Air Force, or other British or Dominion forces. This included Bryan Kingston Talbot, who served in the Bermuda Militia Infantry (regimental number M-181). Tourism returned quickly after the war. An advertisement for the Harrington House hotel of Hamilton Parish in the 21 March 1946 issue of The Royal Gazette newspaper read:
Harrington House
Dancing, Saturday Night From 7.30 to closing BERMUDA LOBSTER STEAKS SOUTHERN FRIED CHICKEN AND CHOPS MUSIC BY TALBOT BROS.
Reservations for Dinner — Phone 7283
The Talbots performed a variation of Trinidadian calypso in a smooth melodic style influenced by popular music. They performed and recorded cover versions of calypso classics in addition to many of their own originals. They became a popular attraction in local hotels, but it was an early recording they made in the United States that made them even more popular in their homeland, and heralded fame beyond their shores. Bermuda Buggy Ride, according to the essay "Gombeys, Bands and Troubadours" on Bermuda's official website...
...brought them wide recognition in the USA, and made them the group tourists most wanted to see. The song was a swing ballad and was actually written… in a buggy en route to Tom Moore’s Tavern. A young student from Yale was in the buggy, and he seems to have had a hand in the evolution of the song. On arriving at their destination, the musicians rehearsed the song until it was ready for performance that very day. It’s been riding along ever since.[8]
Their popularity with American tourists resulted in tours of the U.S. starting in the early 1950s. Notable in their instrumentation was Roy Talbot's home-made upright bass dubbed the "doghouse." Roy created the instrument out of a large meat-packing crate and a single fishing line. This item was a particular curiosity, and during the Talbots’ tours many of their fellow performers and visiting celebrities would autograph the crate.
Ross, the penultimate survivor of the group, died in 2000 at the age of 82.[21][23] An avid golfer, there is an annual charitygolf tournament in Bermuda dedicated to him.[21]
Bassist Roy Talbot, who died on 15 May 2009, was the last surviving brother.[24]
Recordings
Notable songs recorded by The Talbot Brothers include:
Bermuda Calypso Party ("Bermuda, Vol. 3"); Audio Fidelity AFLP-1807; c.1957
Calypsos; ABC-Paramount ABC-156; 1957
Calypso; ABC-Paramount A-156; 1957 (7" E.P.; excerpts from above)
Talbot Brothers of Bermuda; ABC-Paramount ABC-214
Talbot Brothers of Bermuda (Volumes 1-3); Talman (reissue)
Bermuda Holiday; Polyphonic Records (Bermuda) FLP-2001, 1960
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Furness Bermuda Line new service to Bermuda in the 1920s created the need of additional modern accommodations for the tourists coming to the island after the first World War. This lead for Furness Withy, parent company of the line, to begin buying existing hotels and purchasing land for this new demand. This led to the formation of the Bermuda Development Company which would Furness' new business development. Eventually the company would manage four main properties: The St George, The Mid Ocean Club, Bermudiana, and the Castle Harbor Hotel. The hotels would continue to see increased business and benefit from legislation passed that would prevent ships from being used as hotels in 1938. Furness Withy would eventually sell all its ownership in the hotels by 1958.
↑ "Exhibit fails to capture Furness link to tourism glory days". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke Parish, Bermuda. 11 July 2016. Retrieved 31 December 2023. After the First World War, Sir Frederick Lewis (later Lord Essendon) of Furness Withy visited Bermuda, and his immense vision for the potential that Bermuda offered soon became reality. Furness purchased two ships for the Bermuda Trade and invested heavily in local hotels, building the first Bermudiana, Castle Harbour Hotel, Mid Ocean Club and renovating the St George Hotel. As Bermuda tourism grew, Furness expanded their shipping capability, building first the ill-fated motor vessel Bermuda, followed by the revolutionary Monarch of Bermuda in 1931 — and followed by her near-sister Queen of Bermuda in 1933. In the 1930s, Furness Bermuda Line, as it was known, brought thousands of wealthy visitors to Bermuda and the island prospered. Unfortunately, the Second World War brought an abrupt halt to all of that in 1939.
↑ Forbes, Keith Archibald. "Bermuda's History 1900 to 1939 pre-war: Island's role before and after Great War 1914-1916 up to World War 2". Bermuda Online. Bermuda Online. Retrieved 31 December 2023. 1920. The Furness Withy shipping group from the United Kingdom began to invest in Bermuda's tourism industry. It did so by taking over the old Quebec Steamship Company and calling its new service the Furness Bermuda Line. 1920. Legislation was enacted for creation of the Bermuda Development Company, thereby also making provision for the compulsory acquisition with compensation expropriation of certain then under-utilized but much-needed tourism development land at Tucker's Town to be used for the building by Furness Withy of the Mid-Ocean Golf Club and the development of Castle Harbour Hotel. Mostly black home and land owners were to be dispossessed by compulsory acquisition but legal provision was made for them to be fully compensated by standards prevailing at the time. Following expropriation of the land in Tucker's Town on which it sat, Marsden Church, built in 1861 for its mostly black community, announced its relocation to the South Road, Smith's Parish.
↑ McDowall, Duncan (15 October 2023). "The Brethren: Bermuda's Musical Talbot Brothers". The Bermudian. Bermuda: The Bermudian. Retrieved 31 December 2023. In the early 1920s, life in Tucker's Town changed abruptly. The English steamship company, Furness Withy, won the blessing of the Bermuda government to develop tranquil Tucker's Town into a posh enclave for American plutocrats (see "Creating Paradise," page 70). To succeed, the development had to be exclusive: that meant exclusively white. The Talbots and their neighbours would have to move, expropriated by order of the Assembly. Osmond resisted, signing a protest petition. But Mamie liked the prospect of the land offered by Furness Withy in adjacent Smiths Parish with a small packet of cash. In the end, the Talbots went peaceably and soon had a larger home by Harris Bay in Smiths.
↑ "Saxon and Teuton". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda. 16 October 1906. p.2.
↑ Compiled under the general editorship of Fremont Rider by Dr. Frederic Taber Cooper (1922). Rider's Bermuda: A Guide Book for Travelers, with 4 maps. NEW YORK: Henry Holt and Company. Pages 20 and 21, VIII. Theatres and Other Places of Entertainment. High-class professional performances, either musical or dramatic, are a rare treat in Bermuda. Touring companies from England or Canada, and more rarely from the United States, occasionally visit the Islands. But for the most part Bermudians are dependent for theatrical entertainments upon local amateur talent, and that afforded by the Garrison troops......the three small Garrison theatres do a valiant share in each season's entertainment.
↑ Forbes, Keith Archibald (2020). "Bermuda's Smith's Parish". Bermuda Online. Bermuda Online. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
↑ Commissiong, Rudolph (22 May 2016). "Steel pan man's 40 years of music". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
↑ Bermuda: Nature's Fairyland; Official Tourists Guide Book An Authoritative Publication Issued for the Convenience of Bermuda Tourists 1915-1916. Bermuda: Bermuda Trade Development Board. 1915. p.35. The Concerts Given In the Public Parks by the Regimental Bands Are of a High Order and Appeal to the Public Generally......A number of Americans and Canadians have permanent homes in Bermuda which they occupy regularly for a large part of each year, and with the wealthier class of Bermudians, entertain generously, while concerts, dancing and theatricals enliven the evenings at the prominent hotels.
↑ "Local Jottings". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda. 7 October 1925. p.1. On October 7th, 1923, the "Marsden Memorial" Church was dedicated. It is situated on the South Shore road, and was built to replace the building which the trustees handed over to the Bermuda Development Co., Ltd., when the latter expropriated Tucker's Town.
↑ "Jottings From Somerset. OLD FASHIONED CONCERT". Bermuda Recorder. Bermuda. 2 June 1934. p.3.
↑ McDowall, Duncan (15 October 2023). "he Brethren: Bermuda's Musical Talbot Brothers". The Bermudian. Bermuda: The Bermudian. Retrieved 31 December 2023. Their ride brought them to "The Jungle," the new home of Ford Johnson. A future senior partner in the New York financial house of Smith, Barney & Company, Johnson was a bon vivant-a Yale graduate who had played on the American national polo team. Already he had surrounded himself with a fast social set in the new Tucker's Town, people like his neighbour Morgan O'Brien, a former judge of the New York State Supreme Court and now a leading New York divorce lawyer. Johnson and O'Brien loved what they heard. As luck would have it, Johnson had guests that weekend- members of the Whiffenpoofs, the famous singing group from his alma mater, Yale. They taught the Talbot boys the Whiffenpoof song. Here was the first hint of the Talbots' genius for entertaining: a knack for picking up a tune and charming an audience at the same time..........But Bermuda in the 1920s was no place to make your living by singing. Tourism was in its infancy. The Talbot boys counted themselves fortunate to have found good day jobs on the edge of the colony's emerging tourism..........Around the Mid-Ocean Club, Archie became known as the groundsman with the beautiful voice..........But it was Ford Johnson and his Tucker's Town cronies who first got the Talbots to actually perform. One night at the club, Johnson asked for the professional orchestra to stop playing and for Archie to go up on the stage to sing. Young Talbot wowed the audience of "about thirty millionaires."..........The debut at the Mid Ocean opened the door to Tucker's Town, where throughout the 1930s the Talbots played on a demand basis at private parties. Around this time the group actually became a group in the official sense. The three eldest Talbot boys all now had the time and talent to play. Two younger brothers, Ross and Bryan ("Dick"), were still too young for gigs but on occasion joined the ensemble. Sister Mearl sometimes came along to play piano. To fill out their ranks, the boys asked cousin Ernest to join them with his banjo. Thus, sometime around 1929, the Talbot Brothers became a group.
↑ "AMATEUR HOUR AT CORAL ISLAND CLUB". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke Parish, Bermuda. 4 March 1936. p.2. The third of a series of amateur concerts was enjoyed Sunday night at the Coral Island Club by an audience of more than one hundred people. The entertainment was excellent and a great deal of real ability was displayed in the twelve acts put on.
The prizes, awarded by volume of applause from the audience, were:
First, to Arthur and May Smith, of Princess Street, Hamilton, singing and dancing.
Second, to Donald Smith of St. George's, singing.
Third, to Talbot brothers, of Tucker's Town, quartet, accompanied by banjo.
The Terrace Room was filled to overflowing and it was necessary to turn away many who applied for tables. In the future, the management will allocate tables by reservation only, so be sure to call in advance and avoid being disappointed.
Among those present Sunday evening were:—Ray Allen Van Cleef, Sir Algernon and K. Lee Guinness, Capt. and Mrs. Ross Winter, Mr. and Mrs.Cortland Van Cleef, Mrs. Hilda Heffinger, Misses Sheila West and Sylvia Appleby and party of friends, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Fownes, Mr. and Mrs. Louis Mowbray, Jr., The Rev. Ralph Huffer and many others from Paget, Tucker's Town, Hamilton and Bailey's Bay. The amateur nights at Coral Island Club, we believe, are fast becoming the most popular Sunday night rendezvous on the Island.
Mr. Don Parker and his famous scotty were greatly missed by the audience, who remembered his very amusing, extemporaneous performance of the previous Sunday night.
↑ "Doings of Bermuda's Orchestras and Musicians: Amateur Hour at Coral Island". The Recorder. City of Hamilton, Pembroke Parish, Bermuda. 14 March 1936. p.3. Sunday night March 1st, the third performance of the Sunday night Amateur Hour entertainment took place at the Coral Island Club House. These Amateur entertainments are getting to be a big thing down there, drawing large crowds of guest from different Hotels and different parts of the Island. Quite a lot of good talent has been displayed every Sunday night. On Sunday night the prize winners were Little Arthur and May Smith. They took the house by storm having to give many encores of their fine singing and dancing. The second prize was won by Dewey Smith of St. Georges, our fine tenor singer, he also had to give many encores, and third prize to the Talbot Brothers Quartette of Harris's Bay, they did swell with good singing and playing their novelty home made instruments. Other good talent displayed were the Rythm Boys Quartette from Hamilton, also Quartette from St. Georges and young Earlton Flood from Bailey's Bay, George Dixon, Baritone; Gerald Minors, Saw solo; Oswald Lindsay, dancing; (Robert Joell the local Bing Crosby), Fred Ingham and Prof. Anderson, and several others, all escaped the Gong except one. Mr Ross Winter acts as Master of ceremonies and gong master also. Six more Sunday night entertainments have to be performed before all the prize winners will compete for the Big Prize Trip to New York. The progammes are arranged by the Club Orchestra leader, Mark Williams. Anyone wanting to be included in these entertainments may give their name to him, or at the Club House. The contest is open to anyone, young or old, men and women.
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